Monday, November 20, 2017

Evan's Winning Football Season {2017}

Evan's second year of football was the complete opposite of his first year. In Holly Springs, his team never won a game and only scored a couple of touchdowns all season. I don't know why the team was so bad except that the coaches didn't teach the kids the plays they could actually remember and execute. Evan hardly got any playing time either. It was a major disappointment, but he was excited to give football another chance in our new town. He was very excited when he was selected to be on his best friends' team with our neighbor friend as the coach. The coaches really knew what they were doing with youth football, and everyone had a fun season with plenty of playing time. Evan mostly played defense as a cornerback, and he really shined in this position. Most of the teams we played did not have good cornerbacks to protect the sides so that is where we scored most of our touchdowns. With Evan as cornerback, he really made some great touchdown saving tackles and blocks. After playing most of our season games against neighboring town teams that did not offer us a lot of competition, we finally got to play our own town's teams in the "playoffs." There were four teams in our town, our Seahawks, the Falcons, the Patriots, and the Broncos. We had friends playing on the Falcons and Broncos. All of our town's teams had a really good season, but we had remained undefeated going into the playoffs although we had never played any of the home teams. Our first playoff game was against the Falcons, and it was a pretty close game but we did manage to get the win to put us in the championship game against the Patriots. The championship game was as exciting as you could ask of any big football game. It was a tight game and was tied up with six seconds on the clock when our quarterback threw an awesome pass to our tightend who caught the pass and ran it in for a touchdown. Most of the touchdowns scored all season had been running plays as passing was still more difficult. At the end of the first half, the exact same play had actually been tried with our quarterback throwing the pass to our tightend who was standing in the endzone. The ball hit him in the chest, but he dropped it. Needless to say, when he caught the pass at the end of the game, the stands erupted as everyone was on their feet. Both teams were awarded first and second place trophies so it was an awesome end to the season. It definitely makes Evan more excited about pursuing this sport again. He loves football!

Evan is #10, and we could ususally spot him on the field by his bright orange cleats.

Taking pictures of football games is a challenge. We do have a decent zoom lens on our camera which helps, but it is still hard to find your player in the chaos. Luckily, Evan's position put him on the side away from the center where most of the action was.

Grayson and I enjoyed cheering for our favorite player.

Daddy liked to stand closer to the field to be a sideline coach.

Evan was also on the special kickoff team to provide defense for the kickoff return.

Go get 'em, #10!

He was good at waiting back and only going in if backup coverage was needed.

It felt nice to be on the winning side of those scores for a change.

We loved getting the boys' names on their jerseys and helmet stickers for their helmets for a more professional look.

I loved hanging out in the stands when the bugs weren't too bad.

Finally getting a few more action shots of Evan providing some good defense coverage.

You can see his orange shoes at the bottom of that pile. I think he was the first one getting the tackle that time.

Getting some coaching tips during halftime. Evan was pouring water in his mouth.

Another big scoring game.

Evan was the first player in the lineup at the end of the game this time.

Push-ups before the game. Evan was ready.

I think he was helping protect a recovery of the ball as he was taught to do by covering his teammate on the ground.

Providing good defensive coverage.

He definitely got a lot more aggressive this year.

Kickoff coverage.

One of our first challenging matchups was against a private school in Savannah. They train their boys starting in elementary school to be ready for their high school team.

One of his first solo defenses against the runningback with the ball. He held him back until another teammate helped him bring him down.

Our first game against a home team in the playoffs. We were playing the Falcons.

One of the parents painted the Seahawks sign for the championship game although they misspelled it. Maybe they wanted it to be unique. Haha! I couldn't really even tell it from across the field.

The team also came through a big sign to start the game.

Evan providing backup coverage to the defensive line.

We didn't get a lot of pictures of the championship game. I had watched the game from the car with the kids most of the game because the biting insects were so bad. We came out at the end when it was a very close game to see the awesome final play. Our Seahawks finished an undefeated season as the champions!

Go Seahawks! And yes, of all the home teams, I do like the Seattle Seahawks the best. Evan has pulled for them the last few years too. We did pull for Atlanta in last year's Superbowl, but you probably know I would pull for anyone over the yucky Patriots.

Evan was so proud, and our coaches were pretty great too. Their sons, Gabe and Lee, are in Evan's class at school and Coach J.D.'s son Lee is Evan's best friend from right across the road. Since they are all in advance classes, they will likely be together for a long time and will probably be friends for a long time. The picture of Evan at the bottom was funny because he had already drank his red gatorade after the game. Haha!